Russian 375 Final Exam

As you know, in the 1990s Boris Yeltsin attempted a transfer of formerly state-owned companies into private hands through a program of "privatization." How successful was privatization in the area of agriculture? What was the percentage of privately owned farms by 2001?

10

According to the documentary Babushkas of Chernobyl, how long did the fire that resulted from the Nuclear Plant's explosion last?

10 Days

Before its ultimate collapse, Soviet Union was considered to have one of the most diverse and heterogenous populations in the world. How many different ethnic identities populated the USSR?

140 different ethnic identities

At the time of the collapse of the Soviet Union, what was the percentage of non-Russians (e.g. Tatars or Chechens) in the newly formed country of Russia?

17

When did the bolsheviks seize power from the Tsars?

1917

The Soviet system was in place during...

1917 - 1991

Construction of the four reactors that make up the Chernobyl complex was carried out during the...

1970s

When did the Soviet Union collapse and all of the former Soviet republics declared independence?

1991

As you saw in My Perestroika, Borya, Ruslan and Andrei were all drafted into the Soviet army. What was the mandatory term of this service?

2 years

How large is the radioactive "Exclusion Zone" that was declared uninhabitalble?

2,600 square kilometers (approximately 1,000 square miles)

Apart from Chernobyl, how many more Nuclear Power Plants are there in Ukraine?

4

In 1917 the Soviets took over a "country of peasants," in which - according to some statistics - over 60% of the population was completely illiterate (i.e. over 60% of Russians didn't know how to spell their name). According to one of this module's readings, what was the situation with literacy in Russia by the late 1950s? (i.e. after about 30 years of Soviet power)

98.5% of Russians between the ages of 10 and 49 could read

Which of the following statistical data is INCORRECT? (please note: you must choose only ONE answer below)

All of the data listed here is, indeed, correct

While I know that most of you don't read Cyrillic, based on the readings and videos from this module, the following poster was most likely produced as part of...

Anti-alcohol campaign

If you were to visit Chernobyl Nuclear Plant's Reactor №4, what is the level of radiation near this facility?

Approximately 60 times higher than the norm

Which former Soviet republic has the greatest percentage of affected land and people due the Chernobyl accident (in relation to this republic's total national territory and population)?

Belarus

The various republics and regions that comprised the USSR differed greatly in the standard and quality of life and the level of development (an important issue that became a sore spot during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991). Which of the republics listed below were - during the Soviet times - predominantly rural, agricultural and industrially under-developed?

Central Asian Republics (Tadjikistan, Kirgiziya [now Kyrgyzstan], Uzbekistan)

The documentary Soviet Disunion cites Iosif Stalin describing what as "sheltered from the people"?

Dachas (cottages outside of Moscow) of the Soviet leaders

As part of glasnost and a gesture of goodwill, which of the dissidents listed below did Gorbachev release from internal exile and invite to Moscow?

Dissident scientist, Andrei Sakharov

Babushkas of Chernobyl is set during what holiday?

Easter

After Gorbachev's resignation, the next General Secretary of the Soviet Union was Boris Yeltsin.

False

Even though Soviet system actively encouraged personal responsibility, Soviet population generally displayed low levels of labor discipline.

False

Judging by the documentary Babushkas from Chernobyl, if you were to go to the radioactive "Exclusion Zone," you will not see anyone using a cell phone

False

Removal of Nikita Khrushchev from the office in 1964 and the Coup of 1993 are the two successful coups in Soviet history.

False

Soviet authorities immediately released accurate and up-to-date information about the Chernobyl accident and immediately began evacuating people from the contaminated areas.

False

The Soviet system began to crumble gradually, once Stalin's terror (that kept people in line and enabled the system to work) was removed during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev.

False

The chief goal of Mikhail Gorbachov's reforms was to abolish socialism, Communist Party rule and, ultimately, to dissolve the Soviet Union.

False

The disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power station happened after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

False

The majority of Russian artists did NOT support the Revolution of 1917 and actively opposed the Bolshevik regime.

False

The policies of glasnost and perestroika were introduced after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

False

The terms "perestroika" and "glasnost" entered the Soviet rhetoric with Gorbachev. None of Gorbachev's predecessors or the Soviet Constitution had used these terms prior to 1985.

False

The word "radiation" comes from a Greek term that means "ray of light."

False

Towards the end of Soviet regime, "second economy" or "black markets" far exceeded the official Soviet economy in size.

False

US attended summer Olympics of 1980 that were held in Moscow.

False

When Gorbachev came to power in 1985, he was convinced that the Communist Party had to be banned on the territory of the USSR.

False

Most political economists agree that the majority of the Soviet population generally benefited from the Soviet system. Given all the negatives one can point out about the Soviet system, why would an average Soviet citizen actually had a lot to lose with the collapse of the Soviet Union?

For all of the reasons listed here

In May 1985, less than two months after becoming General Secretary of the Communist Party, Mikhail Gorbachev launched a highly unpopular campaign against alcohol abuse in the Soviet Union. Which of the following measures did he implement?

Gorbachev implemented all of the measures listed here

Millions of peasants were uprooted and deported to Siberian towns due to the policy of collectivization that started under...

Iosif Stalin

Which soviet leader simplified cultural discourse (in literature, cinema, art, ect.) to make it more accessible to the masses?

Iosif Stalin

What was the first Soviet republic to declare independence from the Soviet Union in 1990?

Lithuania

Which one of the following changes in the Soviet society listed below is NOT associated with the name of Mikhail Gorbachev?

Major alleviation of nuclear, chemical and industrial pollution in the Soviet Union

Which of the following leaders is the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize?

Mikhail Gorbachev

With Gorbachev's ascent to power in the USSR, many countries of the communist bloc echoed the new reform impulses from Moscow. Ultimately, all of these East and Central European counties began a wave of revolutions to replace their old, pro-Soviet governments. Which of the countries listed below executed their Communist dictator?

Nicolae Ceausescu in Romania

Which Soviet leader was overthrown by his opponents in the first and only successful coup in Soviet history?

Nikita Khrushchev

Match the following terms with their appropriate translation / explanation.

Perestroika - Restructuring Glasnost - Openness Uskorenie - Acceleration GULAG -Soviet era labor camp system that was dissolved by Gorbachev

Which of these countries never was a Soviet republic? (for a comprehensive list of Soviet republics, see My Perestroika study guide, p.8)

Poland

Gorbachev's policy of "democratization" meant...

Reform within the Comunist Party-ruled state

At the history-changing summit in Reykjavik, Iceleand, Gorbachev agreed to a bilateral reduction in nuclear weapons with which important world leader?

Ronald Reagan

Which of the countries listed below was the first to notice elevated radiation levels and to initiate inquiries about its origin?

Sweden

According to the documentary Soviet Disunion, the biggest news item of 1986 was...

The complete and final dissolution of the Gulag labor camps

The largest class in the Soviet society was...

The working class

As this module's readings discuss, glasnost encouraged a sense of civil identity and many new activist groups formed in this climate of new cultural freedoms. One of such groups discussed in your readings was called "Memorial." What was the task of this group?

To hep rehabilitate Stalin's victims and agitate for democratic reform

Although Gorbachev generally believed in an economy based on top-down planning (rather than the market and consumer choice), starting in 1988 he took a few cautious moves towards legalizing small urban private businesses. These businesses were called Cooperatives.

True

Although Reactor №4 is enclosed with a sarcophagus, there is still radioactive dust escaping and - perhaps more importantly - there is a fear that the wall of the sarcophagus might simply collapse one day.

True

Before Chernobyl, there had been other (albeit less serious) nuclear accidents, including the 1979 incident in the U.S. (near Harrisburg, PA)

True

Due to open travel opportunities (Soviet citizens could now travel abroad after years of living behind the "Iron Curtain") and major economic woes and shortages, the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev faced a sharp increase in emigration.

True

For most of the Soviet era, alochol was a tremendous source of revenue for the Soviet state, which exercised a monopoly on alcohol's production and distribution. For example, in 1979 the Soviet state derived a whopping 25.4 billion rubles in indirect taxes from the sale of alcoholic beverages, an amount greater than what was paid in income tax.

True

For most of the Soviet regime, members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union were above the law. In other words, Party members caught in illegal acts were NOT subject to the civil law, but only to Party discipline.

True

In 1917, Russia was an overwhelmingly peasant society.

True

In 1958, Soviet authorities forced Boris Pasternak to reject the Nobel Prize that he won for his novel Dr. Zhivago (the novel was banned in the USSR and had to be published in Italy).

True

It is fair to describe Mikhail Gorbachev as an "idealistic socialist" who set out to revitalize the communist order in the USSR.

True

Just like Prohibition in the United States, Gorbachev's ban on alcohol led to an increase in organized crime.

True

Mikhail Gorbachev was born after the October Revolution that overthrew the tsars; therefore he did not belong to the group of early Soviet bolsheviks who formed the gerontocracy (rule by the old) in the Communist Party of the 1970s and 80s.

True

Russia is the largest country (in terms of land mass) on Earth.

True

The 10 km "Exclusion Zone" remains an active burial place for Ukraine's nuclear waste

True

The Soviet Union had the world's most diverse and heterogeneous populations.

True

The Soviet Union was created as the world's first socialist state

True

The Soviet government system was, what one could call, "hyper-centralized." The Politburo (one of the Soviet governing bodies) was once even asked to rule on the size of servings fed to police horses and dogs.

True

The first human to enter outer space was a Soviet citizen.

True

The only type of cancer that has been positively connected to Chernobyl is thyroid cancer.

True

The term "gerontocracy" was coined in 19th-century France as a critique of a parliament made up of members who were almost all older than the majority of the adult population.

True

There were no nuclear power stations in the Soviet republic of Belarus.

True

Under Joseph Stalin, owning a typewriter required a special police permission.

True

Within the Soviet Union, each republic had its own constitution.

True

Which was was labeled "the Soviet Vietnam"?

USSR vs. Afghanistan

In which of the Soviet Republics listed below was the Chernobyl nuclear plant located?

Ukraine

Match the following Soviet leaders with their respective cultural and historical eras.

Vladimir Lenin- Early revolutionary culture; era of "cultural pluralism" Josif Stalin -Streamlining of cultural movements; introduction of socialist realism as the only accepted form of artistic expression Nikita Khrushchev -The era of the so-called Thaw Leonid Brezhnev -Cultural and economic stagnation Mikhail Gorbachev -The era of perestroika and glasnost Boris Yeltsin - First president of Russia in the absence of the Soviet Union

Which one of the following countries, after 1948, was NOT a part of the Eastern Bloc, united under the Warsaw Pact?

Yugoslavia

The Chernobyl disaster happened due to...

a failed safety experiment on one of the reactors

Lyubov Sirota, whose texts you read in this module's reading selection, is...

a poet, who - at the time of the Chernobyl accident - lived in the Pripyat neighborhood closest to the reactor

Prison camps (Gulags) and political executions were scaled back...

after Joseph Stalin's death

How many people (mostly "illegal" returnees from forced evacuation) currently reside inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (i.e. one of the most toxic spots on the planet)?

approximately 100

During the Second World War, the Nazis destroyed 619 villages along with their inhabitants in the former Soviet republic of Belarusia. How many villages and settlements did Belarusia lose as a result of the Chernobyl disaster?

close to 500

Vladimir Lenin famously claimed that any "educated __________" was capable of becoming directly involved in the running of society's affairs.

cook

Famous work by Alexander Solzhenitsyn "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" (a story of a prisoner in a Soviet labor camp) was first published...

during the era of the Thaw

Komsomol was a communist Youth organization for young children in elementary and middle school grades.

false

The city of St.Petersburg was called Petrograd...

from 1914 to 1924

Media revelations of state crimes of the past (i.e. Stalinism, GULAGs, etc.) during the era of Mikhail Gorbachev have become known as "retrospective..."

glasnost

The policy of glasnost introduced in the mid-1980s was intended to...

increase political transparency of Soviet institutions and allow greater freedom of information

In the USSR, virtually all property was owned by the state. Which one of the following items did the state NOT own?

individual's personal private property

Altogether, how many countries were subject to fallout from Chernobyl?

more than 20

In My Perestroika documentary, Naiv is...

name of a music bank that one of the protagonists played in

Will the 10 km "Exclusion Zone" ever be open to the general public?

no

The explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power station released...

significantly more radioactivity than the Hiroshima bomb

Which of the following revolutions gives power to the Bolsheviks?

the October Revolution

The youngest level of communist Party affiliation for children was named...

the Octobrists

Which Soviet youth organization for children required its members to wear red neck kerchiefs?

the Pioneers

Which of the events listed below is the earliest in the chronology of Soviet / Russian history?

the USSR sends troops to Afghanistan

Which of the following changes that tool place during the Gorbachev era do NOT represent a direct result of the policy of perestroika?

the avalanche of media reports about burgeoning criminality

Which ONE of the following groups was most resistant to the changes that Gorbachev attempted to implement in the USSR?

the military-industria complex